A look at Queens Park Rangers F.C. through the eyes of the fans - follow us on twitter @loftyheights70, @LoftyQPR and @qprleeroy

Sunday, December 09, 2012

Three Minutes of Happiness...

Wigan 2-2 QPR

A very much unwanted record has now been achieved - Queens Park Rangers have set a new record for the longest winless start to a Premier
League following today's draw at the DW Stadium.

The long trip up North was more or less trouble free and myself and Jenson, in the Stadium Wireless car, met up with Lee, Jess, Sam and Luke at Stafford Services, well eventually. Myself and Jenson went in for a coffee and a comfort break and were looking for the others, when Luke appeared and said that he swore blind he saw Kylie Minogue go into the toilet. Admittedly, I thought it was probably someone who looked a bit like her, until the pint sized Aussie and yes, she is VERY small, walked past us with a minder in tow. Our total perversion was somewhat limited as her minder was stopping everyone who even dared breath the same air, but Jenson was very quick to announce to the Twitter world that he had seen Kyle... who must have been the minder ;). Kylie then obliged us by posing for a quick photo, although I am known to tell the occasional little white lie..

We then moved swiftly onto Wigan and managed to grab a couple of free parking spots at the Red Robin pub, of which of course, we were then totally forced in to having a pint. We made our way into the DW at about 2.30 and just in time to sample the Wigan pies and after last season, we were all hopeful of a high rating.

Onto the game and we started quite near the front for a possible Match of the Day appearance, but the drizzling rain forced us much further back. Whilst down the front, the R's had started brightly but when we eventually settled in or new position, Wigan took an undeserved lead - a corner from the left, which wasn't actually a corner at all, was half cleared to McCarthy who drilled the ball home via a deflection off Jamie Mackie.

Rangers fought back and eight minutes later, were level as Ryan Nelsen powered home a header from Taarabt's corner. No more than the R's deserved. In a bitty end to the half, both sides had half chances, Di Santo for Wigan and SWP for the R's.

Onto the 2nd half and Taarabt maybe should have done better but curled an effort harmlessly over the bar. But then it was Rob Green's chance to shine in the Rangers goal, saving superbly from McCarthy, Gomez and Jones. But after surviving the Wigan onslaught, a better connection from Mbia would surely have seen Rangers take the lead on 68 minutes, but Al Habsi pushed his effort away. But 3 minutes later, the Rangers end were in raptures when Mbia capitalised on poor Wigan defending to feed SWP, who cut the ball across to Cisse who side footed the ball home. Could this be it? Our first win of the season finally???

No..

Just 3 whole minutes later and McCarthy, with 5 R's defenders around him, managed to stab the ball past the excellent Rob Green and the scores were level. At this point and as the game became somewhat tense, I feel we just must mention something that amused us throughout the half - a gentleman in the QPR end literally goaded Wigan fans constantly and seem to be picking out certain individuals of which to be honest and after looking carefully, we could not see anyone in the Wigan section to the right that was taking a blind bit of notice of him. Even the stewards didn't see fit to even bother wasting their time with him. This bloke was acting like and is best described as Apollo Creed in the first Rocky film taunting Rocky and the crowd with 'I WANT YOU!!!'.Amusing or worrying, I'm not overly sure...

Anyway, back to the game and right at the death, Rob Green had to be at his best again at full stretch to deny Gomez with a superb one handed save. That was the last action of the afternoon and unfortunately, the winless run continues...

Queens Park Rangers

01 Green

03 Traore

06 Hill

17 Nelsen

19 Bosingwa (Fabio - 84' )

02 Diakite (Granero - 77' )

04 Derry

10 Taarabt Booked (Cisse - 58' )

11 Wright-Phillips

40 M'bia

12 Mackie

Substitutes

26 Murphy

05 Ferdinand

20 Fabio

14 Granero

32 Faurlin

09 Cisse

23 Hoilett

Man of the Match - Only 2 real contenders today with Ryan Nelsen leading by example with another commanding performance at the centre of the R's defence and was Sam's choice. But from the rest of us and with 5 votes, the clear winner today for a superb goalkeeping display, is Rob Green.

Wigan Pie Rating - 6.7/10
In summary, I think it's safe to say that despite a point away from home, the feeling is of disappointment once again. It was another winnable game that has now passed us by and the run goes onto 16 games. You can take positives that things have improved and we have 3 points in 3 games under Redknapp instead of 4 in 13 under Hughes. But I would hope by the time we take on Fulham next week, that Harry will have seen that Boswinga is just not up to the task and also, that he doesn't actually give a shit. Also, SWP, who I have rated and backed in the past, is just not doing it. Whether it's his heart or confidence, I don't know but he looked lightweight and pulled out of too many tackles too often this afternoon and at at time where the players need to stand up and be counted, sorry Shaun, but you just seem to be shying well away from it.

It has been discussed amongst us of just who will get the pleasure of writing the first winning report and hopefully, it will be Lee next week as we take on local rivals, Fulham.